Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2004 11:10 pm Post subject: Elite3D: How do you get it working with xfree?

I've got an Ultra 60 with an Elite3D card in it. I also have a Creator3D that I'll be putting in it, but I'm going to want to have both so I can use dual monitors. I understand that there are people who have the Elite3D cards working with xfree, but how? When I run it after a fresh xfree install (and configuring XF86Config of course), I get an X in the middle of the screen (this is the mouse cursor) then it dies and kicks me back to a bash shell. It says "Caught Signal 10". I've heard something about needing to get Sun's microcode? Any help is much appreciated!

*** If unresolved symbols were reported above, they might not
*** be the reason for the server aborting.

Fatal server error:
Caught signal 10. Server aborting

When reporting a problem related to a server crash, please send
the full server output, not just the last messages.
This can be found in the log file "/var/log/XFree86.0.log".
Please report problems to xfree86@xfree86.org.

My XF86Config looks like:

Code:

# File generated by xf86config.

#
# Copyright (c) 1999 by The XFree86 Project, Inc.
#
# Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a
# copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"),
# to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation
# the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense,
# and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the
# Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
#
# The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in
# all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
#
# THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
# IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
# FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL
# THE XFREE86 PROJECT BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY,
# WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF
# OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
# SOFTWARE.
#
# Except as contained in this notice, the name of the XFree86 Project shall
# not be used in advertising or otherwise to promote the sale, use or other
# dealings in this Software without prior written authorization from the
# XFree86 Project.
#

# **********************************************************************
# Refer to the XF86Config(4/5) man page for details about the format of
# this file.
# **********************************************************************

# The location of the RGB database. Note, this is the name of the
# file minus the extension (like ".txt" or ".db"). There is normally
# no need to change the default.

RgbPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb"

# Multiple FontPath entries are allowed (which are concatenated together),
# as well as specifying multiple comma-separated entries in one FontPath
# command (or a combination of both methods)
#
# If you don't have a floating point coprocessor and emacs, Mosaic or other
# programs take long to start up, try moving the Type1 and Speedo directory
# to the end of this list (or comment them out).
#

# Uncomment this to cause a core dump at the spot where a signal is
# received. This may leave the console in an unusable state, but may
# provide a better stack trace in the core dump to aid in debugging

# Option "NoTrapSignals"

# Uncomment this to disable the <Crtl><Alt><Fn> VT switch sequence
# (where n is 1 through 12). This allows clients to receive these key
# events.

# Option "DontVTSwitch"

# Uncomment this to disable the <Crtl><Alt><BS> server abort sequence
# This allows clients to receive this key event.

# Option "DontZap"

# Uncomment this to disable the <Crtl><Alt><KP_+>/<KP_-> mode switching
# sequences. This allows clients to receive these key events.

# Option "Dont Zoom"

# Uncomment this to disable tuning with the xvidtune client. With
# it the client can still run and fetch card and monitor attributes,
# but it will not be allowed to change them. If it tries it will
# receive a protocol error.

# Option "DisableVidModeExtension"

# Uncomment this to enable the use of a non-local xvidtune client.
# Option "AllowNonLocalXvidtune"

# To customise the XKB settings to suit your keyboard, modify the
# lines below (which are the defaults). For example, for a non-U.S.
# keyboard, you will probably want to use:
# Option "XkbModel" "pc102"
# If you have a US Microsoft Natural keyboard, you can use:
# Option "XkbModel" "microsoft"
#
# Then to change the language, change the Layout setting.
# For example, a german layout can be obtained with:
# Option "XkbLayout" "de"
# or:
# Option "XkbLayout" "de"
# Option "XkbVariant" "nodeadkeys"
#
# If you'd like to switch the positions of your capslock and
# control keys, use:
# Option "XkbOptions" "ctrl:swapcaps"

# HorizSync is in kHz unless units are specified.
# HorizSync may be a comma separated list of discrete values, or a
# comma separated list of ranges of values.
# NOTE: THE VALUES HERE ARE EXAMPLES ONLY. REFER TO YOUR MONITOR'S
# USER MANUAL FOR THE CORRECT NUMBERS.

# VertRefresh is in Hz unless units are specified.
# VertRefresh may be a comma separated list of discrete values, or a
# comma separated list of ranges of values.
# NOTE: THE VALUES HERE ARE EXAMPLES ONLY. REFER TO YOUR MONITOR'S
# USER MANUAL FOR THE CORRECT NUMBERS.

# The chipset line is optional in most cases. It can be used to override
# the driver's chipset detection, and should not normally be specified.

# Chipset "generic"

# The Driver line must be present. When using run-time loadable driver
# modules, this line instructs the server to load the specified driver
# module. Even when not using loadable driver modules, this line
# indicates which driver should interpret the information in this section.

Driver "sunffb"
# The BusID line is used to specify which of possibly multiple devices
# this section is intended for. When this line isn't present, a device
# section can only match up with the primary video device. For PCI
# devices a line like the following could be used. This line should not
# normally be included unless there is more than one video device
# intalled.

# Any number of screen sections may be present. Each describes
# the configuration of a single screen. A single specific screen section
# may be specified from the X server command line with the "-screen"
# option.
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen 1"
Device "SunElite3d"
Monitor "G500"
DefaultDepth 24

# Any number of ServerLayout sections may be present. Each describes
# the way multiple screens are organised. A specific ServerLayout
# section may be specified from the X server command line with the
# "-layout" option. In the absence of this, the first section is used.
# When now ServerLayout section is present, the first Screen section
# is used alone.

Section "ServerLayout"

# The Identifier line must be present
Identifier "Simple Layout"

# Each Screen line specifies a Screen section name, and optionally
# the relative position of other screens. The four names after
# primary screen name are the screens to the top, bottom, left and right
# of the primary screen. In this example, screen 2 is located to the
# right of screen 1.

Screen "Screen 1"

# Each InputDevice line specifies an InputDevice section name and
# optionally some options to specify the way the device is to be
# used. Those options include "CorePointer", "CoreKeyboard" and
# "SendCoreEvents".

hey i *JUST* installed my elite3d,
get the jar file from the site and upack it. Inside theres 4 folders and some other crap. I think the 2nd folder from bottom has the file you want (afb.ucode) and put it in /usr/lib. Emerge afbinit and put it in the default runlevel if you want. If you did everythign right, afbinit start should tell you its loading the microcode into whatever card you want. It should work after that....

That being said CREATOR3D shouldnt need the afbinit at all, it should jsut work with sunffb driver for x

I couldnt find any info/manuals on the afbinit thingy, so i had to cat all the scripts to figure out where to put the afb file. The script should be modified so it fails when the afb file is not found (right now it says [ok] in the init.d script, even though afbinit actually fails because file is not in the right spot). How would i go about submitting that modigication into the portage?
Heres the modified rc.afb file that will make the init script fail if afbinit fails:

That being said CREATOR3D shouldnt need the afbinit at all, it should jsut work with sunffb driver for x

Experience teaches that that remark should be a little stronger: You really
must not try to load the afb microcode into a Creator (ffb) card.
You will lock the card up, and (if you are like me) you will need a few complete
power cycles (as in pull the plug; don't just go to standby) to get it back.

As for DRM on Elite:

Quote:

on the similar topic, how do you get DRM to work with elite3d?

Short answer (for X) is: "You don't"
If you want to convince yourself of this, start with the driver code. The
driver for the Creator cards and for the Elite cards is sunffb, and the module
you want is the main driver, which is ffb_driver.c, and it lives in
xc/programs/Xserver/hw/xfree86/drivers/sunffb
in the xfree source tree.

Notice that the symbol XF86DRI is defined for this build, so that the
code at lines 825--839 (of ffb_driver.c) are in fact compiled in. Now, for an Elite, the
card type is either afb_m3 or afb_m6, and in both cases the driver skips the DRM initialization.

I do not know if this is because:

DRM doesn't make sense on Elite;

Jelinek & Miller didn't know how to do DRM on Elite;

Sun won't tell you how to do DRM on Elite;

It's too hard for what you might get from it;

It's taken care of some other way someplace else besides the driver;

something else.

Notice that an Elite3D-m6 has 3 or 4 times as much stuff on it as ffb2+ has
on it: All that microcode has to be buying you something.